Wednesday 25 May 2011

The Coming War on Canadian Women

I went to get my teeth cleaned yesterday. Same hygienist for decades. Nice woman, not terribly political but good heart and instincts. We talked a bit about the appalling election.

I said something like: 'Now that the ReformaTories have a majority, they'll start to behave like the Tea Bagger Rethuglicans in the US. We can look forward to MASSIVE attacks on the poor, sick, old, and especially, of course, women.

She hadn't heard anything about it. Not even the attempted complete defunding of Planned Parenthood.

Now, it's so bad down there that Kos is running a weekly roundup on the War on Women.

Today, at the federal level, the fetus fetishists came up with another genius stunt.
The House voted Wednesday to ban teaching health centers from using federal money to train doctors on how to perform abortions, the latest in a series of anti-abortion measures pushed by the Republican majority.

There are lotsa reasons for abortion. Some are life-and-death medical emergencies. Already, there are too few MDs trained in the various abortion procedures and now there will be even fewer?

Women will die.

But that's OK with the Fetus Lobby.

And lest we think that more mature countries are above this kind of insanity, look what's going on in the UK.
A group which is opposed to abortion in all circumstances and favours an abstinence-based approach to sex education has been appointed to advise the government on sexual health.

The Life organisation has been invited to join a new sexual health forum set up to replace the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV.

Stuart Cowie, Life's head of education, said: "We are delighted to be invited into the group, representing views that have not always been around on similar tables in the past."

In contrast, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) has been omitted from the forum despite its long-term position on the previous advisory group and 40-year track record in providing pregnancy counselling nationwide.

"We are disappointed and troubled to learn that having initially been invited to the sexual health forum we have been disinvited, particularly now we understand that Life have been offered a seat at the table," said Ann Furedi, chief executive of BPAS. "We find it puzzling that the Department of Health would want a group that is opposed to abortion and provides no sexual health services on its sexual health forum."

Let the Fetus Lobby in and force the Sane People out.

Yo! Canadian women! Get this straight. Conservatives hate women.

8 comments:

double nickel said...

It will take decades to recover from the damage that is about to unfold.

CanNurse said...

I never thought I'd live to see the day. Feel like I'm in a horror movie that is going back in time.

Beijing York said...

What the UK coalition government is doing is a really bad harbinger for us. This will fuel the Harper retrogrades in thinking that such agendas are not really that extreme and probably acceptable for many Canadians. I'm tired and my eggs are old, so in reality it doesn't directly affect me, but I'll be damned if any government goes after controlling productive ovaries. A mighty FU to the womb patrol crowd.

fern hill said...

It's damn scary how sanguine many Canadian women and their allies are. Harper *promised* after all ^NOT to reopen the debate. Yeah. Right.

And yeah, I found the UK move really frightening. So inclusive, so coalitiony.

So stupid.

Do ^NOT let them get a foot in the door.

Niles said...

That's the trouble with normal. It always gets worse.

Villains don't go "Curses, Vagina Royale, your superior logic has defeated me, you caped crusader. I must now go and mend my ways." They fake their death and plot off on the side until they figure out how to have power swing back their way. Preferably bolstered by fembots.

They're *counting* on their original opponents to be too old, too disorganized, and too non-essential to the young women targeted now to show any ferocity.

What's really scary is looking South, I'm wondering if they're right. Over time, a great many progressive communities grew, only to be cut down by repressive regimes. We here in Canada have been mainly sheltered from that, even more than American women. It-can't-happen-HERE, which...is essentially depending on religiously empowered men to politely respect the humanity of women and not enrich their own status at the sacrifice of women not willing to bow to their righteousness.

Heck, I just *know* such goodfellas are trustworthy.

the problem child said...

Never trust a man to "help" with a decision.

jothomas said...

The religious twats convinced the Mission High School that teaching sex-education was wrong so they removed the course. In 18 months a day care center was opened in the school to help the teenaged mothers continue classes so they could graduate. Having a child while still in high school was fine in their eyes but teaching them how not to get pregnant was wrong.

Niles said...

You know, a childcare in a high school is almost as awful to the Usual Suspects as contraception.

It's interesting the school bowed to pressure enough to install a daycare instead of simply slut shaming and showing them the door. Are there provincial statutes at work? But even with sex education courses in schools there are young women who would need such a service.

If womens' needs were prioritized so they could educate themselves, work, be mothers *and* get on with bettering their lives without an expectation they must partner someone, there would be daycares provided everywhere.

Of course, that's also the world where I imagine each school has a health counselor on campus to neutrally and factually advise students of both sexes about the most time consuming subject on their minds, there are anti-bullying measures integrated to the school day, nobody goes hungry, teachers aren't treated simultaneously as overpaid pinko commies and miracle workers, and every student feels secure enough to learn a curriculum that isn't buzzcut twaddle.

Imagine the adults that would turn out. Which is likely why parents of certain bents scream so loudly that it must never happen.

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